Commercial Service Taiwan Completes U.S. Trade Day and Select USA Roadshow

August 19, 2015

Andrew Edlefsen is the Director of the Las Vegas U.S. Export Assistance Center and currently serves as Global Asia Team Leader. He has been with ITA for eight years.

CS Taipei Senior Commercial Officer, Ireas Cook (second from right) with state representatives at the U.S. Trade Day opening ceremony.

Earlier this month, I participated in the U.S. Trade Day and Select USA Roadshow in Taipei, Taiwan. The Commercial Service Taipei office, part of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), co-organized U.S. Trade Day, currently in its 4th year, in conjunction with the Taiwan Bureau of Foreign Trade’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taiwan External Trade Development Council.

U.S. Trade Day has served as an effective platform for U.S. companies to understand the Taiwan business environment and meet with potential buyers and partners. During the opening ceremony, AIT Director Kin Moy highlighted the burgeoning trade relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan, noting that Taiwan was the U.S.’s 10th largest trading partner in 2014 with total bilateral trade in goods exceeding $67 billion. Among the driving forces for trade growth between Taiwan and the U.S. is foreign direct investment. The U.S. is currently Taiwan’s largest foreign direct investor, and Taiwan is taking significant steps to reciprocate, as indicated by their strong presence at the 2013 and 2015 Select USA Investment Summits in Washington, DC.

U.S. Trade Day also served as the venue for the first day of the Select USA Taiwan Roadshow, the first event of its kind ever in Taiwan. With stops in Taipei and Kaohsiung, this roadshow featured five states and one city. Idaho, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, McKinney (Texas), and Virginia – participated to introduce their respective investment destinations to potential Taiwan investors. CS Taiwan staff also arranged networking events and B2B meetings between representatives of the participating U.S. states and Taiwan businesses.

The U.S. delegates expressed praise for the quality and value of these events and appreciated the chance to promote their investment opportunities to such a large Taiwan audience.